Government should make use of the 1 million unused slots the private sector makes available every year to the NHS to deliver its target of 40,000 extra elective appointments per week.
Ahead of tomorrow’s Budget speech, chancellor, Rachel Reeves confirmed that the NHS will receive new funding to deliver an extra 40,000 elective appointments per week in a bid to reduce waiting times in the NHS.
This includes an additional £1.8bn that the government has invested in elective activity this year since its July Statement.
Government has also confirmed that starting this week, the NHS will help people back to health and back to work by sending teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to help roll out reforms to cut waiting lists in hospitals – which will start with those in areas of the highest economic inactivity.
While welcoming the planned investment, David Hare, CEO of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) (pictured), said there was more the private sector can do to help cut wait times.
“This new funding is clearly very welcome and needs to be quickly deployed to start to get NHS planned care waiting lists down from current record highs,” Hare said.
“Independent sector providers across the country stand ready to play their part in treating more NHS patients and ensuring that the taxpayer gets maximum value from this investment.
“This should include making use of around one million slots every year which the independent sector makes available to the NHS at NHS prices – but which currently go unused.”